Best photo software for a newstarter?

[likealot]

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I'm new to the world of digital photo processing and trying to make a decision on which software to go for. Is Lightroom 6  the best or is there other software available which is relatively easy to learn to use and which doesnt cost a fortune? Any advice please?

[zeitz]

What are you trying to do with the software?  Options range from Photos on a Mac (free) to Photoshop, the industry standard for production graphics, $9.99 per month.

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[david strachan]

Fast Stone Image Viewer 6 is free, and very easy.  You can go on to Light Room in due course.

cheers...

[ramarren]

I'm new to the world of digital photo processing and trying to make a decision on which software to go for. Is Lightroom 6 the best or is there other software available which is relatively easy to learn to use and which doesnt cost a fortune? Any advice please?

LR 6 hardly costs "a fortune" and is an excellent image processing choice. It's easy to learn and use, and works very well. You can buy it as a perpetual license app too, without need of buying into a subscription (see https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/download-install-single-app-Lightroom-6.html for details on that. I would say that for $150, it's likely one of the best available options.

Edited March 31, 2017 by ramarren

[likealot]

LR 6 hardly costs "a fortune" and is an excellent image processing choice. It's easy to learn and use, and works very well. You can buy it as a perpetual license app too, without need of buying into a subscription (see https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/download-install-single-app-Lightroom-6.html for details on that. I would say that for $150, it's likely one of the best available options.

 

Ooops, sorry, I should have worded my original post differently. I certinly didnt intend it to sound as if I thought that LR6 costs a fortune. On the contrary, I think LR6 price is very reasonable. I wanted to ask if there was any other software that compares to it in the same price range.

 

The software will be used for amateur light work at home. By the sounds of it there isnt much competition to it out there so I might as well just go for it. Cheers

guys.

[LocalHero1953]

I jumped straight into LR3 when I jumped into digital Leica. Coming from a background of limited experience in Photoshop Elements, I found that for catalogue management and editing it was robust, intuitive, easy to use and easy to develop new skills after watching some of the many free videos out there (Julieanne Kost in particular). As an industry standard (with Capture One), you will find it easier to get advice and training than if you use some minority-usage software.

 

Others say that they find it difficult to use and unintuitive.

 

To which I conclude - download a free trial and try it yourself!

[otto.f]

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CaptureOne is the one to go for.

 

Unless you want Photoshop, which is quite usefull, the whole Adobe Suite subscription is quite an investment per month. The LR6 stand-alone version is very hard if not impossible to find, which reflects a nasty commercial attitude of Adobe to start with. It's also impossible, if you buy a Leica for instance and get some promise for free software, to get LR6 separate from the whole Suite. The quality of LR6 results does not justify all this hustle before you can get started. Not my cup of tea.

 

I would recommend to do a trial version which most brands have and see how it works with your camera. I'm not at all satisfied with LR6 for my M10 for instance, where CaptureOne works perfect for me there

Edited April 1, 2017 by otto.f

[jaapv]

I've said it before: Have a look at ON1. It has all of your requirements.

[Chuck Albertson]

What is best depends on who you ask. Lightroom does pretty much everything I need to do in terms of editing digital photos. Half of the program is its database function, which becomes more important as you add more photos to your archive and you need to group/organize/retrieve them.

 

I always go for the stand-alone version, available here https://www.adobe.com/products/catalog/software._sl_id-contentfilter_sl_catalog_sl_software_sl_mostpopular.html (scroll down to the Lightroom for $149 link); I usually go two years between ($79) upgrades, so it works out better for me than a monthly subscription, but the subscription version has some features that don't show up in the stand-alone version.

[Exodies]

<snip>the subscription version has some features that don't show up in the stand-alone version.

One of which is Photoshop. Another is Lightroom Mobile.

[SilentShutter]

If you ask me. Shot RAW and develope it in Adobe Camera Raw.

If you need a retouche Photoshop is the only option I guess. 

[sanyasi]

CaptureOne is the one to go for.

 

Unless you want Photoshop, which is quite usefull, the whole Adobe Suite subscription is quite an investment per month. The LR6 stand-alone version is very hard if not impossible to find, which reflects a nasty commercial attitude of Adobe to start with. It's also impossible, if you buy a Leica for instance and get some promise for free software, to get LR6 separate from the whole Suite. The quality of LR6 results does not justify all this hustle before you can get started. Not my cup of tea.

 

I would recommend to do a trial version which most brands have and see how it works with your camera. I'm not at all satisfied with LR6 for my M10 for instance, where CaptureOne works perfect for me there

 

I strongly disagree.  People like the color profiles, the color tools, and I am "forced" to use it  when I use my tech camera because of its capacity to process LCC profiles.  Having said that, Capture 1 is very poorly designed and documented, it has a terrible user interface, its cataloging of files is difficult to deal with, and it is extremely buggy.  I am a Photoshop/ACR user, but I started with Lightroom, and that is where I recommend you start if you are serious about digital photography.  I haven't looked recently, but I suspect, based on my experience with Adobe Photoshop, that there are a ton of a free videos on YouTube that you can use to teach yourself the program.  I also find with Photoshop, and I suspect that the same is true for Lightroom, if I have a question, I can type keywords into Google, and get an answer quickly.  Even if you need to go to a paid video model like Scott Kelby or Linda, those services are relatively inexpensive for what you get. I have tried the Luminous Landscape videos and one book that I purchased from Amazon on Capture One.  Both were terrible.

 

I am also tired of the attacks on Adobe's subscription model.  When it was instituted, there were dozens of articles and posts pointing out that the monthly fee model was not all that much more expensive (If it was more expensive) than the two or three-year upgrade cycle, with the advantage that features were added on an ongoing basis, there were other features available (like the opportunity to participate in a program to promote your work).  It was not a question of greed.  Adobe needs to be profitable to make the software available--Google is giving the NIK suite a way, but no longer updates it, meaning that eventually it will not work as operating systems are evolve.  After 2 or 3 years, Adobe has been "honorable" when it comes holding the price for photographers relatively level.  

 

And then there were those who said Adobe would go out of business because photographers in mass would reject the new licensing model.  That apparently hasn't happened.  The stock price, if I recall correctly, was in the mid to upper 40s when the program was introduced.  Yesterday, the closing price was $130 a share.  Individual photographers tend to be photographer-centric.  If you run a large advertising agency, design firm, marketing shop, or media company, Adobe's new model eliminates many licensing headaches and update issues, which may explain why the stock price has moved up.  Nobody ever seems to question the R&D costs of new equipment, but for some reason, they think software doesn't cost money to create or maintain.

 

Adobe created a special program for the individual photographer.  It is also ironic that people on a forum where the base camera is a $7,000 dollar proposition complain about paying a $120 US or so a year to have access to a fabulous program.  Even if you are not replacing the sky or compositing creatures into your work, Photoshop or some of post-capture processing capability is a critical element in the digital photographer's overall work flow.

 

As for Lightroom being hard to come by as a stand-along program, apparently not in the U.S.  It is available for license as a stand along product or through a subscription model at BHPhoto.  According to BH Photo, this is was you get with the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan (12 months) for $119.48 per year:

 

Dedicated Photo Editing Suite

Subscription to Photoshop and Lightroom

Tools to Organize, Edit, Enhance & Share

Constant and Automatic Feature Updates

Up-to-Date Camera Support

Extensive Library of How-To Videos

Cloud-Based Storage for Multiple Devices

Sync to Photoshop Mix & Lightroom Mobile

For Mac and Windows Operating Systems

 

It is also worth noting that Capture One has introduced a subscription model.  The cost is $180 for a 12-month subscription, but you can also download a freestanding copy ($299.00), but then you pay for periodic updates (current update to Capture Pro 10 $89--prices from BHPhoto website.  Keep in mind that CaptureOne, because of its association with PhaseOne, does not support cameras that are viewed as competitive with PhaseOne products.  I don't have a complete list of unsupported cameras, but it has recently been reported that the Fuji GFX 50s and Hasselblad X1D are not supported.  I was able to immediately process my Fuji GFX 50s files in Photoshop (ACR), and I am told that was true for Lightroom users.

 

In the end, if you are serious about your digital photographer, you are going to have a considerably larger investment of time than money to learn digital processing whatever program you select.  In my opinion, it is worth the effort.

[otto.f]

I see all too magenta results from my M10 with LR latest, whether in standard or M10 profile. I guess I wrote that the price is not worth the results, because you still have to work through your own desired profile for your M10. So if it has to be Adobe, I'd stick to CameraRaw

[ramarren]

If all you want is a perfect image on the default settings of a raw converter, learn how to make your M10's JPEG engine do what you want and eschew raw files and post processing entirely. 

 

Lightroom does exactly what I want, with any raw files I throw at it. That doesn't mean I use only and exclusively its default camera calibrations or parameter settings: it's a raw converter which I tune to my use and needs for every camera I own. I have the LR perpetual license version because it's cheap and I have no need for Photoshop or other pixel twiddling software anymore. 

 

I posted the link to Adobe's own explanation of how to buy the LR perpetual license version before. Here is it again: https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/download-install-single-app-Lightroom-6.html

It's not difficult to obtain. 

[pico]

My little two bits worth - accept the best recommendations from the experienced persons. Lightroom seems to the most popular from the most experienced, then STICK WITH IT until you are an expert.

 

Disclosure: I still use only Photoshop CS5.1 2 because I'm an olde pharte with over 15  years of PS experience, and I do not produce enough keepers to need a file organizer.

 

Best of luck, sincerely.

Edited April 5, 2017 by pico